I said something about landlords being inherently parasitic to my aunt thinking shed be a receptive audience because of being poor and having left-wing politics and a history of activism but she objected that there are good landlords
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Inherently is a very strong word
@sun youre right but I think its a great majority. such a stark position of power over someone as being able to directly render them homeless often results in abuse of this power. with other services provided if you do a bad job they can go elsewhere, its much more difficult with a shitty landlord.
@georgia I think it’s complicated by, yes if you view it systemically why people don’t have access to a home. But in a simple sense many people don’t do valuable enough work to afford a full house. I realize that is controversial to say but just because a human did the work doesn’t mean the value exchange will always work out to affording a good life.
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@sun housing is extremely hard for most people to afford these days not because they aren't performing worthy work, but because wages havent increased with the housing market. wages havent increased imo mostly because shareholder value go up is seen as the supreme good. for instances my aunt I mentioned performs valuable work, shes a good teacher in underperforming communities, but shell likely never be able to afford a house.
@georgia of course I mean like
If you are 60 and you still work at Burger King what the fuck did you expect
If you are 60 and you still work at Burger King what the fuck did you expect
@sun thats fair but not being able to afford a house is mostly a thing among younger generations
@georgia I was taking issue with “inherently” in the 1960s people could afford houses much more but there was still renting
@sun @georgia
If you see an elderly person working any job, you shouldn't be asking yourself what they "did" to deserve that life. You should be outraged at a government that views it's citizens as disposable meat bags.
As a knowledge worker you need to see the writing on the wall, you're much closer to becoming one of the masses of poor working class Americans than you think.
If you see an elderly person working any job, you shouldn't be asking yourself what they "did" to deserve that life. You should be outraged at a government that views it's citizens as disposable meat bags.
As a knowledge worker you need to see the writing on the wall, you're much closer to becoming one of the masses of poor working class Americans than you think.
@subnetter @georgia I grew up from that class and I don’t consider it as morally inferior but it is not valuable work and that person could definitely have moved on to something better, and you know it
@subnetter @georgia fast food work specifically I mean.
@sun @georgia @subnetter idk. that pathway used to provide a living wage and a stable if small life. I've met many retired and semiretired service workers who bought a house and had a small family off that wage in very upmarket areas.
@kernow @georgia @subnetter I ran some numbers for it and even at the absolute peak of relative buying power of minimum wage (1968) it didn't reach national median home prices. in effect if you bought a house on only minimum wage income, it was only possible in certain areas and a particularly cheap house. This is of course improved situationally if you are a dual-income minimum wage earner household. this was also again at the absolute peak, if you go start going earlier, it becomes unaffordable again.
I am not denying your experience though you can find lots of people that did it but it was never true generally on a national scale it seems.
I am not denying your experience though you can find lots of people that did it but it was never true generally on a national scale it seems.
@sun @georgia @subnetter not today ofc, but nothing can provide that sort of stable and small life today. I blame regulatory and market issues making housing an investment rather than a consumable good, and old people occupying existing housing stock (including the unfair 55+ covenants) in this class.
@subnetter @georgia @sun I'm in the fast food trenches atm, and I have ranked up to a point where I could live on my own but, if you do it long term, you pretty much have to become the boss or move on.
Most of the people I work with are not cut out to be the boss, either from lack of desire or ability. Specifically, the older to elderly ones are usually very nice but just not super competent for one reason or another, and you can tell they're basically stuck where they are. It's a lot of factors, but anyone who is 40+ doing this shit at the bottom is either starting their life over from a messy divorce e.g. or they're fucking doomed to never escape this*.
Idk what it would take to make their lives better, tbh (besides more money but good luck making that happen), but the reality on the ground is pretty grim.
*And by this I mean living paycheck to paycheck renting, never making enough to save, unreliable transport, can't keep their light bill paid, etc etc. It's a lot of them.
Most of the people I work with are not cut out to be the boss, either from lack of desire or ability. Specifically, the older to elderly ones are usually very nice but just not super competent for one reason or another, and you can tell they're basically stuck where they are. It's a lot of factors, but anyone who is 40+ doing this shit at the bottom is either starting their life over from a messy divorce e.g. or they're fucking doomed to never escape this*.
Idk what it would take to make their lives better, tbh (besides more money but good luck making that happen), but the reality on the ground is pretty grim.
*And by this I mean living paycheck to paycheck renting, never making enough to save, unreliable transport, can't keep their light bill paid, etc etc. It's a lot of them.
@pwm @georgia @subnetter yeah and I am not even implying these people are just "dumb" or something, I have met a ton of people in my life that I KNOW are not "dumb" but they absolutely are not even trying to meet their obvious (even if "modest") potential. It's disheartening.
I have experienced that world... Not good...
@subnetter @sun @georgia without fast food workers, people who can't cook and lazy people would have to go to a convenience store or a grocery store for prepared seedoil slop to kill themselves with. They provide a very valuable service.